Iraqi officials said in a statement that they had signed an agreement with EBS Petroleum, an Iraqi subsidiary of Zhenhua Oil, on Wednesday to increase the daily output of East Baghdad Field, one of the country's largest oil fields, from 50,000 barrels to 100,000 barrels.

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil said in a statement that the company will use advanced horizontal drilling technology to develop six new wells in the oil field and will build four large oil storage tanks in the area. Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani said, "The East Baghdad oil field currently produces about 45,000-50,000 barrels per day, and the project will increase production capacity to nearly 100,000 barrels per day."

Earlier this year, Iraq announced the discovery of a new oil field in the East Baghdad oil field group in the south, which is expected to add 2 billion barrels of medium and light crude oil reserves to the country. The Iraqi state-owned Central Oil Company (MdOC) disclosed that in the test well operation jointly carried out with EBS Petroleum, the daily production of a single well in the oil field reached 5,000 barrels.

Iraqi officials stressed that the discovery strongly supports the reserve increase plan announced by the country's oil minister a year ago - to increase the country's recoverable oil reserves from the current 145 billion barrels to 160 billion barrels.

Iraq plans to increase its national oil production capacity (including production in the northern Kurdish region) from the current 4.5 million barrels per day to 6 million barrels per day by 2028. As the second largest oil producer in OPEC, Iraq's current crude oil production is slightly over 4 million barrels per day, second only to Saudi Arabia.

According to public information, in May 2018, EBS Petroleum and Iraq Central Oil Company signed an integrated development and production service contract for the southern block of the East Baghdad Oilfield, namely the Iraq East Baghdad Oilfield Drilling Project Contract.

The project is the first project operated by an international oil company in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, and the only producing oil field in the region. As of early 2024, the project has produced a total of approximately 33 million barrels of crude oil and is an important pillar of the power and refining industries in Baghdad.(This article is from the official website of Seetao www.seetao.com. Reprinting without permission is strictly prohibited. Please indicate Seetao.com + original link when reprinting) Seetao.com Strategy Column Editor/Sun Fengjuan